Competency and Compensation

A large part of sustainable growth for contractors is being able to effectively leverage people with a narrower set of skills to still deliver the same level of value-add to the customer.

D. Brown Management Profile Picture
Share

This support structure is called “Enabling Bureaucracy” and is a combination of management time, control systems, QA/QC, workflows, training, etc.

Leadership Tools: Graph representing Value-Add and Compensation with Quantity of people in the workforce, ability to manage ambiguity, and skill level and execution.

As contractors grow they need to refine their organizational structures, workflows, job descriptions  and their talent processes to support this growth.

These support structures must be built over time and integrated with the contractor’s growth strategy.  Once effectively in place these support structures will produce a more scalable organization that can actually deliver the same value-add to the customer at a lower total cost providing a competitive advantage. 

These systems are slow, painful and costly to put into place.  The recruiting focus of a contractor must be in alignment with the levels of support structures they have in place.  Netflix defines this quite well in their culture slide deck and book.  

Are your support structure capabilities and recruiting in alignment?  

If not there will be excessive stress on the team combined with lower profitability.  This just means you are at one of the inflection points on the business growth cycle.




Opportunity Pipeline Target Size: The Basic Math
The biggest leading indicator for performance of a contractor is the size, quality, and trajectory of their opportunity pipeline. There are lots of nuances and complexity to evaluating your pipeline, but it all starts with the principles and basic math.
Winning Projects - The Early, Middle, and Late Game
Successfully winning projects starts with knowing all phases of the game. All contractors participate in the "Late Game." Playing the "Early Game" effectively positions contractors to win more frequently, with better pricing, and better terms.
The Apprentice Who Knows Everything – A Look Inside AI
AI tools are powerful, but what's happening inside them? This article opens the hood on how large language models work, using construction analogies to explain why clear direction and good specs matter just as much with AI as they do on a jobsite.